Asian markets higher amid uncertainty over US tariffs
U.S. stocks tumbled after higher tariffs on imports from China, Canada and Mexico took effect on Tuesday, but Asian shares and US futures were mostly higher Wednesday after a retreat on Wall Street wiped out all of the S&P 500's post-U.S. election gains.
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USA Today
29 minutes ago
- USA Today
XRP is the smartest cryptocurrency to buy with $500 right now
XRP is demonstrating its long-term growth potential. Nowadays, $500 doesn't feel like much — especially if you invest it in the S&P 500 index, where you can expect to make an average annual return of 10% (assuming historical trends remain constant). That's just $50 per year. However, the cryptocurrency industry offers the potential for significantly larger gains than traditional asset classes, like stocks or bonds, for investors who are willing to tolerate more volatility. Below I'll explore why the payments-focused token digital XRP (CRYPTO: XRP) might make an excellent long-term pick as it racks up regulatory wins in the U.S. and seeks to disrupt the market for international transactions. The regulatory climate is easing Donald Trump's presidential election victory sparked a sharp rally in many cryptocurrencies, and it isn't hard to understand why Wall Street is so optimistic. On the campaign trail, he promised to support the digital asset industry and, so far, his administration is meeting or even exceeding expectations with a raft of newly passed legislation. On July 18, Trump signed the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (Genius) Act, which is designed to create a framework for issuing dollar-pegged stablecoins. On its face, this law helps legitimize cryptocurrency as a mainstream asset class, which will encourage businesses and institutional investors to get more involved without the fear of potentially breaking any rules. The Genius Act is a departure from the climate under the previous administration, when lawsuits and enforcement stifled crypto adoption. XRP's developer, Ripple Labs, was affected by this legal uncertainty. In 2021, Ripple lost its partnership with one of its highest-profile clients, MoneyGram, which stopped using its XRP-based liquidity solutions after Ripple was sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over alleged securities law violations. The case has now been largely resolved with XRP not classified as a security when sold to retail investors, although there are still discussions about settling fines related to Ripple's sales of XRP to institutional investors. The path to real-world utility XRP's main selling point is its focus on real-world utility. Instead of trying to be a platform for highly speculative and often useless decentralized applications (dApps), XRP focuses on the more tangible market for international payments. Its speed and low fees (0.00001 XRP per transaction) make it an ideal bridge between different currencies. For example, if someone in the U.S. wanted to send money to Japan, they could buy XRP with dollars and use that XRP to buy Japanese yen, bypassing slow and potentially costly intermediaries. Dollar-pegged stablecoins promise to make this process even easier by removing the volatility inherent in a free-floating bridge currency like XRP. Instead of allowing its niche to be disrupted, XRP's developers are joining the fray. In 2024, they launched a dollar-pegged stablecoin of their own called RLUSD. Consumer use of RLUSD can indirectly benefit XRP because both tokens are built on the same network. RLUSD transaction fees are paid with XRP, which is then removed from circulation (burned). Is it too late to buy XRP? Despite its relatively small unit price of just $3.15 at the time of this writing, XRP is the third-largest cryptocurrency, with a market cap of $187 billion. While this vast size gives it more brand recognition and stability, it also means that investors shouldn't expect a repeat of the explosive returns XRP enjoyed in the past. That said, slow and steady often wins the race. XRP has graduated from the boom and bust volatility of a meme coin, and investors should focus on its long-term growth potential as it benefits from easing regulatory pressure and compelling real-world use cases. Will Ebiefung has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends XRP. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. The Motley Fool is a USA TODAY content partner offering financial news, analysis and commentary designed to help people take control of their financial lives. Its content is produced independently of USA TODAY. Should you invest $1,000 in XRP right now? Offer from the Motley Fool: Before you buy stock in XRP, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and XRP wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $636,628!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,063,471!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,041% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 183% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks »
Yahoo
43 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Best S&P 500 ETFs: 10 top funds for 2025
The Standard & Poor's 500 – the S&P 500 – is the benchmark stock index in the United States, and it's come to symbolize the stock market as a whole. The S&P 500 has a strong record of returns, averaging about 10 percent per year over long periods, and it's easy for investors to buy the index through an exchange-traded fund (ETF), getting immediate exposure to all its stocks. Here are the best S&P 500 ETFs as well as some alternative funds based on the S&P 500 for investors to consider. Best S&P 500 ETFs The funds below invest in the S&P 500 in the same weighting as the official index. Because the S&P 500 is weighted by market capitalization, larger companies have a larger weighting in the index. The funds here try to closely mirror the performance of the official S&P 500. These funds tend to have low expense ratios, which is the fee you'll pay to the fund management company. The funds below are all index funds since they track a specific index and invest passively with the fund's management reflecting only official changes in the index. You can also explore the best Nasdaq funds if you're looking to invest in tech stocks. (Fund data as of July 31, 2025) Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO) This Vanguard fund tracks the S&P 500 and is one of the company's most popular funds. 5-year annualized return: 16.1 percent Expense ratio: 0.03 percent iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV) The iShares S&P 500 fund is another popular way to invest in the benchmark index. 5-year annualized return: 16.1 percent Expense ratio: 0.03 percent SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) This State Street fund is the granddaddy of ETFs in the U.S. and tracks the S&P 500 index but at a somewhat higher cost than rival funds. 5-year annualized return: 16 percent Expense ratio: 0.095 percent SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 ETF (SPLG) This State Street fund functions exactly the same as its sister fund above, but it comes with the most competitive expense ratio here. 5-year annualized return: 16.1 percent Expense ratio: 0.02 percent MORE: Bankrate's list of the best ETFs Other funds to invest in the S&P 500 with a twist The funds above track the regular S&P 500 index, so their performance closely follows that index. But the funds below slice and dice the index for a different set of returns than the official S&P 500 index. Some funds include all the stocks in the index but weigh them differently, while other funds carve out a section of growth or value stocks and base their fund on those. Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF (RSP) This Invesco fund weights the hundreds of stocks in the S&P 500 equally (not by market cap), so each stock has about a 0.2 percent share of the fund. This fund will do better than a regular S&P 500 fund when smaller stocks are outperforming and larger stocks are lagging. 5-year annualized return: 13.5 percent Expense ratio: 0.20 percent iShares S&P 500 Growth ETF (IVW) This iShares fund tracks a subset of the S&P 500 that includes the fastest-growing stocks, as measured by factors such as three-year sales-per-share growth and the stock's momentum. 5-year annualized return: 16.7 percent Expense ratio: 0.18 percent iShares S&P 500 Value ETF (IVE) This iShares fund tracks a subset of the S&P 500 that includes the value-priced stocks, as measured by factors such as a stock's low price-to-earnings ratio and price-to-sales ratio. 5-year annualized return: 14.3 percent Expense ratio: 0.18 percent SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 Growth ETF (SPYG) This State Street fund owns stocks among a subset of the fastest-growing S&P 500 stocks, as determined by the stock's momentum, sales growth and earnings growth compared to price change. 5-year annualized return: 16.8 percent Expense ratio: 0.04 percent SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 Value ETF (SPYV) This State Street fund owns stocks among a subset of the value-priced S&P 500 stocks, as determined by the stock's price-earnings ratio, price-to-sales ratio and price-to-book ratio. 5-year annualized return: 14.4 percent Expense ratio: 0.04 percent Vanguard S&P 500 Growth ETF (VOOG) This Vanguard fund tracks a subset of the S&P 500 that includes the value-priced stocks, as determined by factors such as a stock's low price-earnings ratio and price-to-sales ratio. 5-year annualized return: 16.7 percent Expense ratio: 0.07 percent Learn more: Stocks vs. ETFs: Which should you invest in? Risks of S&P 500 ETFs While ETFs can be a great way to invest in the market, they still have some downsides: Volatility: An ETF can be highly volatile, although it tends to be less volatile than individual stocks. In the short term, an ETF can move up or down, and you'll need to commit to holding on for years to enjoy the fund's strong long-term returns. Tracking risk: An ETF tracking a specific index may not perfectly mirror the returns of the index, and it's called tracking risk. In the case of these S&P 500 funds, it's not a huge risk, but other types of index funds may vary widely, especially if they're investing in less liquid stocks. Structural costs: ETFs that use leverage to multiply your returns or that try to profit on stocks falling have extra costs that can make them more costly. These extra costs can drag on their returns over time and their ability to track their target index. That's not an issue for the S&P 500 funds above, but it's something to watch if you're investing in leveraged ETFs. Bottom line An S&P 500 index fund can be a great way to invest in the market, and you won't need a lot of investing expertise to do so. In fact, legendary investor Warren Buffett has long advised most investors to simply buy the index rather than invest in individual stocks. It's incredibly easy to buy an S&P 500 fund, and you can do so at any of the best brokers for stock trading. Calculator: Are you on track to reach your investment goals? 擷取數據時發生錯誤 登入存取你的投資組合 擷取數據時發生錯誤 擷取數據時發生錯誤 擷取數據時發生錯誤 擷取數據時發生錯誤
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
This trader is sounding the alarm over stocks. Why he's pressing the sell button now.
Wall Street headed into payrolls Friday with a bit of concern. The previous session saw very bullish reactions to Meta META and Microsoft MSFT earnings. But after surging to a fresh intraday high, the S&P 500 SPX instead finished down on the day. Granted, it was the end of a month, when some technical portfolio fiddling can happen. And there may have been worries about the looming tariff deadline on Aug. 1. Still, for the major indices to relapse on what was broadly agreed to be positive corporate backdrop is not a good look. 'I told him that wouldn't fly': My 90-year-old mother's adviser pushed her to change her beneficiaries. What is going on? Social Security wants to make a change that would cause 3.4 million more people to have to visit its field offices Amazon's stock is falling, as this trend from earnings has investors worried Indeed, it's the kind of action that will encourage Macro Tourist blog author and former institutional trader Kevin Muir, who says he's going 'back to the short side.' When Muir spoke to MarketWatch a few weeks ago, he said he was becoming increasingly wary of the market. At the time the S&P 500 SPX was trading around 6,250. But early on Thursday it traded above 6,400, and in a new blog post, he says the 'terrific earnings reports from Meta and Microsoft' have given him the opportunity 'to pull the trigger on a sell call.' 'There are a bunch of reasons for my shift in tone, but with the good news from MAG 7 earnings, and the tariff deal 'wins' being announced by Trump, we've hit a point where much of the good news is baked into the price,' says Muir. His longer-term concerns about the market remain; investors' over-allocation to the U.S. market, their severe concentration in big tech, economic policy volatility, and what he terms the extended nature of economic expansion. Rich valuations are also a problem, says Muir. In April, at the height of the Liberation Day tariff worries, analysts sharply cut their 12-month forward earnings per share estimates, while uncertainty saw the multiple applied to those earnings drop from 22.5 to 18 times. That gave the market a lower valuation bar to hurdle. But now earnings estimates are at all-time highs and the earnings multiple is back to 22.5. 'Of course, maybe this time 22.5 times doesn't prove to be the top in multiples, or maybe earnings estimates find a way to accelerate even more from here, but the risk/reward is now skewed to the downside,' says Muir. And he now reckons this could all coalesce into one of the market's fairly regular summer swoons. So far this year, the market has had no respect for the 'sell in May and go away' mantra, Muir notes. There was a 3.4% correction in mid May, but it lasted less than a week. This got him thinking: How often does the market just rally all summer long? 'It certainly feels like we're never going to correct, but is this a reasonable assumption?' Muir asks. He created the table below showing all the summer drawdowns over past 30 years, highlighting all the pullbacks of less than 5% in blue, and the only dip smaller than the latest one in purple. Muir notes that all the less-than-5% corrections started in mid-June or later. Not one started in May. 'I suspect that the current mid-May correction will not prove to be the maximum summer drawdown. Although there is nothing stopping the rally from continuing, the longer it continues, the more overbought it becomes, and the larger the inevitable correction,' says Muir. He also believes that buying by volatility-control funds currently is slowing down, removing another support for the market. So it's time to short the current rally, he reckons. (Note, he wrote this before Friday's fall in equity index futures). 'If I am wrong, I probably lose 100 S&P 500 points to the upside, and if I am right, we get a quick whoosh for 300+ handles to the downside,' he says. U.S. stock-indices SPX DJIA COMP are dropping at the opening bell as benchmark Treasury yields BX:TMUBMUSD10Y fall after the jobs data. The dollar index DXY is lower, while oil prices CL.1 retreat and gold GC00 is trading around $3,355 an ounce. Key asset performance Last 5d 1m YTD 1y S&P 500 6339.39 -0.38% 0.96% 7.78% 16.39% Nasdaq Composite 21,122.45 0.31% 2.53% 9.38% 22.85% 10-year Treasury 4.387 -0.50 3.60 -18.90 59.40 Gold 3346.1 0.23% -0.01% 26.78% 34.59% Oil 68.89 4.13% 2.56% -4.15% -10.45% Data: MarketWatch. Treasury yields change expressed in basis points Need to Know starts early and is updated until the opening bell, but to get it delivered once to your email box. The emailed version will be sent out at about 7:30 a.m. Eastern. U.S. president Donald Trump hit dozens of countries with tariffs but yet again extended his deadline, from August 1 to August 7. Stock markets in Asia and Europe fell on the news. Trump has also again lambasted Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. In a Truth Social message the president said the Fed board 'should assume control' of policy. The U.S. nonfarm payroll report for July showed 73,000 jobs were created, below forecasts for 100,000. And June's number was revised down from 147,000 to just 14,000. The unemployment rate rose from 4.1% in June to 4.2%. Other U.S. economic data due Friday include the ISM manufacturing survey for July; construction spending for June; and final consumer sentiment for July, all released at 10 a.m. Apple shares AAPL are higher after revenues topped estimates, but stock AMZN is lower after AI spending weighed on profit growth. Ray Dalio has sold his last remaining stake in Bridgewater Associates, and stepped off the board of the hedge fund that made him a billionaire. Why Ford's made-in-America strategy hurts it in Trump's trade war. How an 'Entrepreneur of the Year' brought the first big bust to AI boom. Investors glimpse pay-off for Big Tech's mammoth spending on AI arms race. For the most part, the S&P 500 has been trading inversely to the dollar index, notes Michael Kramer at Mott Capital Management. 'Before May 9, when the dollar declined, stocks also fell; after May 9, as the dollar weakened, stocks moved higher. Now, with the dollar gaining strength again, equities are beginning to struggle,' he says. Here were the most active stock-market tickers on MarketWatch as of 6 a.m. Eastern. Ticker Security name NVDA Nvidia TSLA Tesla AMZN AAPL Apple FIG Figma AMD Advanced Micro Devices GME GameStop PLTR Palantir Technologies META Meta Platforms MSFT Microsoft Virginia's swimming wild ponies. Oasis fans down a record 250,000 pints at Wembley gig. 2,500-year-old Siberian 'ice mummy' had intricate tattoos. There will be gold! Trump to build $200 million 'Beautiful Ballroom' at the White House. For more market updates plus actionable trade ideas for stocks, options and crypto, . Will your spouse automatically inherit your 401(k)? 10 stocks favored to gain up to 30% in a sector that has missed this year's rally 'I worked at 14, had an 8.8% mortgage rate and drove used cars': Did boomers really have it easier than millennials? 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